xn 



Preliminary Chapter. 



18GU, for the most favorable northwestern point he could reach in a 

 whaler, from which point he would make his way westward with such 

 Eskimo comi)anions as he could secure. To the American Geograph- 

 i«al Society lie had avowed his chief object to be "to determine more 

 satisfactorily the fate of the one hundred and five companions of 

 Franklin known to be alive at the date of the ' Record' brought back 

 by McClintock." 



Nothing seems to prove more fully the sincerity and depth of con- 

 victions — at times insecurely based — than this expectation of finding offi- 

 cers or men of that party still alive. The paper found at Point Victory 

 in iSo'J showed that Captain Crozier had left the ships on their aban- 

 donment, w ith a weakened party and with the remnant of perhaps origi- 

 \\A\\ ill-sni)plied* provisions, to find his way toward the desolate region 

 ( if j^ack's or Great Fish River. The presumption in the minds of most 

 men was entirely against the probability of extended life in any one of 

 the survivors named in that Record. 



But all difficulties in the case were overcome or lost sight of in 

 Hall's reasonings, and in his impulse to bear relief. From inquiries 

 r»f the whalers who visited Cumberland Sound, Repulse Bay, and other 

 n<»rthern localities, he learned that the experience of some who had 

 lived ft.r UKUiths as Eskimos with the Eskimos, had not been severe; 

 and fn.ni one of Dr. Kane's party, Mr. William Hickey, he received 

 Insurance that \\\u-\\ li<- and others of that party had so lived, they had 

 recovered from all sicknesses and maintained their health. Hall con- 

 cluded that some of Franklin's survisors might be still enjoying a lease 



•See Sir John Hichanluon'B "Polar Regions," p. 162; Admiral Sherard Osbom'e "Career of 

 l-Yanklin," piJ. 70, 105, 108; and D. Murray Smith's "Arctic Explorations," 1877, especially for the 

 qualify of Goldn.-r'B proviMionH. The want of pcmmican itself, of which Osboni spealcH, would 

 makf the HiipiM.rt of Crozier'H j.arty jilincmt hopelcHs, compelling thoni to drag loads too heavy 

 for th«ir Mtn n;;lh. 



